Drink – Play – Love

Has enough time gone by since the Bow River crested to start laughing about the crazy flood week? I don’t know about you, but for us — in between the moments of stress and panic — there were quite a few hilarious and strange stories that took place and are worth relaying.

So here goes… My Top 5 Inglewood #yycflood stories:

1. When it floods, save your… fish?

Inglewood alderman Gian-Carlo Carra snapped this picture of our betta fish’s saviour ferrying him to safety.

Our betta, Blue-blue, is now 3-1/2 years old but still a part of the family. And so, when we were clearing out the house on Sat., June 22, I resolved to save the fish even though he could’ve just swam off had the river swept away our home. Even odder, the stranger who carried Blue-blue to safety was caught on camera by our alderman, then tweeted out. Awesome!

2. “Will work for rum!”

Larry volunteered tirelessly to help Inglewood residents clean up.

What do you do with 600 square feet of soggy carpet and underlay? Wait in your back alley for a guy named Larry to drive by and haul it away. Blake met him one afternoon when Larry was loading our carpet into his truck. When Blake offered to pay him Larry acted quite offended, then said, “You wouldn’t happen to have a shot of rum, would you?” I sense a new Inglewood motto: “Will work for rum.”

3. Always remember to mow your lawn before you evacuate

“Don’t post that to social media,” Blake warned while he mowed. “I don’t want to be the loser out mowing before his house got flooded.” Ha!

You know the saying about how you should always wear clean underwear in case you get into an accident? Well, here’s a new one: Always mow your lawn before evacuating your house because it might end up on national television.

As we were waiting for the official evac-door-knock on June 20 we wandered out front to look at the river. I commented on the state of our unsightly lawn and its towering dandelion population. “Hmmm,” said Blake. “Maybe I should mow it.” So off he went to get the mower and good thing too — 48 hours later a shot of the homes on our street opened up the evening news hour. And our lawn looked awesome!

4. Good thing we don’t need to hire a lifeguard

No need for a lifeguard when you’ve got this out front.

People keep asking us if we regret buying property on the Bow River, especially with young children. Don’t we worry they’ll walk out the front door and fall off the new cliff into the raging waters?

No, we don’t regret our move to 8th Ave. in Inglewood. If anything, we are even more jazzed about the ‘hood after the amazing response to our plight by friends and neighbours. And as for worrying about the children going for an accidental swim, there’s no concern now since Rapid Fence put up this lovely barricade last week. It also doubles as a really long dog run.

5. Forget cocktails. Where’s my beer?

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

For all that I write about cocktails, I never evacuated my cocktail shaker amid the flood panic. Through a week of helping friends clean out mucky basements, what I really wanted at the end of a long, hot day was a nice, cold beer. And a bottle opener would’ve come in handy, too.